Tuesday, 24 July 2012

I bought a house today.

OK, sorry, that's a corny old post title. The first of Battlefront's french village range arrived today; the Calais House. On impulse I opted for the subscription deal for all twelve(?) buildings, plus some extras. I've no idea of the release schedule or what building is when, but as BF are billing each house separately, it isn't a big initial outlay.

To be honest, I've not bought this for immediate use, but with an eye for the future. Not only are my Fallschirmjager sitting accusatively on the painting desk, but I really struggle to set up a 6 x 4 table in our house. However, we are trying to sell up and move somewhere bigger (and if the economy would like to pick up, that would be a big help.) The Mrs is a big of a obsessive lister and on her prospective house checklist (big kitchen, reasonable garden etc) she has put "Scott's space or Nerd room" in the definate column. So I'm starting to look forward to the time when I'll have a dedicated space for gaming and painting (and, you know, raising a family etc.)

Onto the Calais House though. The house comes in three separate resin pieces and each floor easily holds two medium Flames of War bases. The paint job is pretty basic and quite rough in places. Like most of the Battlefield in a Box range, this will benefit greatly from a little extra work. I've heard that the painting standard varies quite wildly so be prepared for a little work if you go for one of these.

Despite this, I'd say that this is still well worth the slightly high price for two reasons. Firstly, I'm quite happy to pay a little extra couple pounds to have someone else fo the guts of the painting. Secondly, and probably more importantly, it will take a big effort to force me to buy a lot of unpainted resin and get it on the table (hell, haven't got my army done yet,) so buying these simultaniously prods me to get some painting done and should make gaming more enjoyable in the future.